Dodd, Swerdlow and lots of other Leopard stuff

Mark Dodd has not yet had an important final exam in the
classroom at Lafayette College, but he had one on the football team’s meeting
room last week.

And because he passed it with flying colors, the 6-2,
220-pound freshman middle linebacker from Wheeling, W.Va., Dodd, who thinks
another middle linebacker, Baltimore’s Ray Lewis, “is pretty impressive …
insane,” earned himself a lot more playing time last Saturday during the
Leopards’ non-league game with Princeton.

Dodd is behind junior Mike Boles on the depth chart, “and
I watch him and figure my assignment on what he’s doing.”

Boles is worth emulating. The 6-3, 230-pound junior, is
Lafayette’s leading tackler with 39.

Dodd has been attracting the attention of the Lafayette
coaches ever since he decided to leave his West Virginia home for a good part
of the summer and come up to Easton to work out and train with veteran
Leopards. “I kind of got myself acquainted to the guys and the area,” Dodd said.
“Going into the preseason, I got the playbook thrown at me, and it was
definitely a big difference from high school, especially the speed, the size,
the learning curve of it.

“It all started to click recently for me, putting things
together, figuring out my assignments and all. Last week (before the Robert
Morris game), I thought I was going to get an opportunity but it didn’t happen.
Then this week, I finally got the opportunity and I was really excited.”

Dodd said defensive coordinator John Loose pulled him
aside after a defensive meeting and “put me through a little quiz about what I knew.
He went through a bunch of formations and stuff and asked what I did. He told
me I did pretty well, so I was confident that I was going to finally start
seeing some time. I wasn’t happy about the outcome (a 35-14 loss to Princeton), but
I was excited to get in there and make a few tackles.” In fact, he made five,
including sharing a sack.

“Once I got in there Saturday and started getting in some
reps, it all kind of clicked for me,” he said. “It was just back to playing
football. I loved it.”

Dodd played 26 defensive snaps on Saturday -- about a third of the 74 plays Princeton ran -- and Coach Loose said of him, "He has all the
tools, ability and work ethic to be a great LB here."

Linebacker was the team’s deepest position at the
beginning of summer camp, but the group has been somewhat decimated. Matt Gill
suffered a shoulder injury (he is expected back this week); starter Ben Aloi
tore an ACL last week; Tyler Robinson injured an ankle against Yale and starter
Kasheem Hill was suspended “indefinitely” for a violation of team rules.

“They definitely hurt, but when it comes down to it, you
have to be a family, stick together, pull people through it,” Dodd said. “When you
get out on the field, no matter who you’re playing with, the loss stings a lot
more. “You can go back after the game and there will still be issues, but once
you’re on the field you want to do everything you can to win. When you come up short,
it doesn’t feel very good.”

Dodd is not the only freshman linebacker to get playing
time. Chris Brockman has played in all five games and has seven tackles and a
sack.

“We’re a pretty tight-knit group, but we do have a lot of
different personalities,” Dodd said. “Mike Boles is a quiet leader, but when he
goes he plays hard. Colton Kirkpatrick is out of his mid, obviously. He’ll fly
around, 150 miles an hour. You try to take a little of each personality to
shape your play.” Obviously, it’s working for Dodd.

Asked about the possibility of being part of the revival
of Lafayette football, Dodd said, “It’s pretty cool to me, surreal. I just want
to do everything I can to become a better player and help the team no matter
what aspect it is.”

SWERDLOW NOT KICKING
ABOUT NOT KICKING

Earlier this year, it looked like senior Ethan Swerdlow
might be doing all the Lafayette kicking – field goals, PAT, punts and
kickoffs. The quick emergence of freshman Ryan Gralish has changed that plan,
however, and Swerdlow finds himself doing only the punting.

“As long as we keeping performing on special teams, that’s
all that matters to me,” the La Jolla, Calif., native said, “so, now, it’s a
good thing.”

Swerdlow made one field goal from 34 yards out and had a
31-yard attempt hit the upright in the season opener at William and Mary, where
he also kicked two PATs. However, the day before the Penn game, the decision
was made to turn the placekicking chores over the Gralish, who is now 2-for-2
on field goal attempts – including a 46-yarder – and 12-for-12 on PATs.

Asked how much placekicking he does in practice these
days – just in case he is needed again – Swerdlow said, “Before practice, I get
some kicks in, and during practice they try to work to the second string, so
everyone gets some.”

Swerdlow, who averaged 39.6 yards per punt on 56 kicks in
2011, has booted 32 this year for an average of 39.8 yards, including eight that
gave the opponent the ball inside the 20. His long is 59 yards.

If there is an area he has been working on it would be
keeping the ball out of the end zone – eight of his punts this year have
resulted in touchbacks as compared to only three a year ago.

“Each week, the object is to make the net yards as long
as possible. It doesn’t matter if I kick a 60-yard punt if they return it 30
yards. So, whether I’m trying to kick away from someone or getting extra hang
time, (net yardage) is the goal.

I asked him which
punt is the most difficult for him. I expected him to say the pooch punt, or
angling the ball out of bounds or kicking out of his own end zone. Something
profound. He was much more direct.

“Ahh … the next punt,” he said.

Coach Frank Tavani quipped, “That’s an engineer for you.”

COACH TAVANI ON
YALE (1-3)

Somebody said to me about all the points scored against Yale
(147). All that means nothing to me. The only thing that matters is when I look
at that film and I can tell what kind of football team they are. This team, like
us, they’ve had some self-inflicted wounds and they’re a good football team. Whether
the running back (Tyler Varga) plays or not, they still do enough things to
give you problems. They’re very similar to Princeton with their offense, and
much like Harvard, as you would suspect.
The coach (Tony Reno) was at Harvard a good while (three years) and you can see
similarities to Harvard’s defensive and offensive personality. I’m sure they’re
looking at how effective Princeton was against us with a similar offense, so I’m
sure they’re licking their chops up there.”

COACH TAVANI ON
ANDREW SHOOP

The Leopards’ senior quarterback missed last week’s game
because of a concussion suffered against Robert Morris. – “He was exertion tested
(Monday) and did very well, and he feels great and has been bouncing around. He
appears to everyone to be back to normal. But those things, only coming to us 3
½ days later, too, then him expressing some symptons other games, (the medical
people) proceed cautiously, as they should. Remember a year ago, Ryan (O’Neil) thought
he’d be ready, then at the other end, they decided to hold him another week. We
have to prepare two quarterbacks, and whenever I hear from doctors that he’s
cleared or not cleared, we will proceed from there. We expect him to practice
today.” Zach Zweizig, who played at quarterback this week, came through fine
and Coach T said the two weeks rest was good for his foot fracture.

SOME SHORT TAKES

The Yale Bowl -- when Lafayette played there in 2009.

Asked about points of emphasis this week, Tavani
said: “We better learn to play that read-ride play a little better No. 1,
because we’re going to see that. Whave to work hard to run the ball and be
better. Long run (65 yards) by (Ross) Scheuerman was not an aberration; I can
show you six or eight other clips where we were just that close to breaking it.”

Lafayette has won only two of the nine pervious
meetings with Yale – the last two. Shoop passed for twov touchdowns last year –
one to Mark Ross – as the Leopards won 28-19 in Easton. In 2009, Maurice White
rushed for 131 yards; Mark Layton had seven catches for 116 yards and two TDs
and Rob Curley passed for 241 yards and the two scores as Lafayette defeated
the Bulldogs for the first time ever 31-14 – in their own house no less.

I couldn’t understand all of Yale Coach Tony
Reno’s words on the conference call Tuesday, but because I asked him what about
Lafayette concerned him most, I know he had to be complimenting Lafayette
receiver Mark Ross as “the most (unintelligible) receiver we’ve seen all
season.” Ross now has 26 catches for 381 yards and three touchdowns after
getting five for 103 on Saturday against Princeton.

Tony Varga, a Canadian who transferred to Yale
this year from the University of Western, sat out last week’s game against
Dartmouth while the NCAA investigated a complaint about his eligibility. During
then conference call Tuesday, Reno, asked if there was any update on Varga’s
status said simply, “It’s in the hands of the NCAA, that’s all I know right now.
We’re waiting to hear back, and we don’t have a timetable on when we’re going
to hear back. We’re hoping that it will be in the near future this week, but we
don’t know for sure,. As soon as we find out, we’ll get it out there. We’re
just hoping things work out.” Varga is the leading rusher with 319 yards and
three TDs; he has caught seven passes for 46 yards and a TD; he has 10 kickoff
returns for 277 yards, including one 63-yarder. That gives him 642 all-purpose
yards – 214 a game.

Yale may be the only team to the Lafayette
schedule that is as young as the Leopards. Varga is listed as a freshman –
that, too, is in dispute. The Bulldogs also start a freshman QB in Eric
Williams, who is 84-for-131 for 813 yards and five TDs and eight interceptions.
But here’s the dangerous stat – he also has rushed for 240 yards on 41 attempts
(net 168, which includes eight sacks). We all know by now about Lafayette’s
problems with a running quarterback. Two freshman are listed as defensive
starters and offensive H-back Stephen Buric is a frosh. “They’ve had a lot of
transition there but it’s an outstanding school and program and name. They’ve got
stability with a staff and guys familiar with each other, too,” Tavani said. Rick Flanders, the defensive coordinator, was
a special teams coach at Lafayette from 1987-90; Kevin Morris, offensive
coordinator, is a former head coach at Massachusetts; defensive line coach
Dwayne Wilmot, a 2001 graduate of Maine, would have been a wide receiver during
the last two of Mickey Fein’s years quarterbacking the Black Bears.

Coach Tavani, asked if he got any explanation
about why a facemask penalty was not called on one play Saturday night against
Princeton, said, “I can show you three explanations right on here (holding up
his cell phone) where I got an apology from the assigning official on all those
calls – the punt (on which Lafayette was hit with a personal foul penalty and
then Coach Tavani was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct), the facemask and
the whoever, whatever ghost grabbed that guy’s jersey on our sideline. Officials
don’t win or lose the game, but the explanation was they didn’t see it, missed the
call. At least I got angry for a reason; he justified my anger.”

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